The present invention relates to a method for managing a computer system in a storage area network environment by means of a management agent.
One of the most common schemes for managing a computer system is to have a management application and a management agent so arranged that the latter provides the former with a management interface for operating its constituent devices. Thanks to recent advances in the Web technology, use of XML messages is becoming increasingly popular as a means of communication between the management application and the management agent. This kind of arrangement allows the management application to utilize remotely located management agents via the Web (or an ordinary IP network), thereby facilitating centralized management.
In such an arrangement, the management agent employs user authentication to prevent the settings of the computer system or its constituent devices from being altered by users other than the system administrator. If no security measures such as authentication are employed, a malicious user (cracker) might be able to crack into the system by stealing the system administrator's identity and altering messages during transmission. This might cause the management agent to falsely modify the settings of a device, thereby resulting in a system down.
In typical conventional arrangements of this sort, the only mechanisms to prevent unauthorized execution of commands on the system's constituent devices have been cryptography, such as a cipher system applied to the communication path between the management application and the management agent, and user authentication. Since cryptography in itself does not control the executability of commands on the target device, if it is broken on the communication path the cracker who has also managed to disguise himself/herself as an authorized user would be able to have any commands executed on the target device.
If for tighter security the management agent were to always demand a sufficiently secure communication path and a sufficiently secure authentication method, then it would become necessary to provide them even for those management applications which do not require such a tight security level. This would limit the management applications that the system administrator can use.